Benevolent leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors in a higher education context: a moderated mediation model

Abstract

PurposeDrawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this paper investigates the moderated mediation model linking benevolent leadership to organizational citizenship behaviors towards the organization (OCBO) and towards individuals (OCBI) in the context of higher education. The mediating roles of leader-member exchange and affective commitment as well as the moderating roles of the two attachment styles—attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance—are also examined.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a sample of 333 university lecturers and analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results demonstrate that leader-member exchange and affective commitment are mediating resources that help benevolent leaders motivate university lecturers to engage in two types of OCBs. Moreover, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance act as the respective enhancer and inhibitor for the indirect effects of benevolent leadership on both OCBs through leader-member exchange. In contrast, the relationships between benevolent leadership and two types of OCBs through the mediating role of affective commitment are not contingent on the attachment styles of lecturers.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that university leaders who aim at promoting OCBs among lecturers should deploy benevolent leadership style to facilitate a positive social exchange relationship as well as foster their affective commitment. Such leadership style is especially effective in influencing lecturers who possess attachment anxiety personality traits.Originality/valueThis pioneer research develops and empirically tests a COR theory-grounded moderated mediation model pertaining to benevolent leadership and lecturers' OCBs. The findings contribute to the educational management literature by demonstrating that benevolent leadership, a crucial organizational resource, significantly motivates lecturers' voluntary and extra-role behaviors in a dynamic and contingent manner. Leader-member exchange and affective commitment are important mediating resources in the process of transforming benevolent leadership into beneficial behaviors. Further, the effectiveness of benevolent leadership largely depends on lecturers' personality traits of attachment anxiety and avoidance. These novel mediating and moderating findings demonstrate the sequential and interaction effects of various organizational and individual resources on lecturers' OCBs; thus, adding value to the COR theory's core principles, including resource caravans and resource investment behaviors.

The moderating effect of self-efficacy on supervisory support and organizational citizenship behavior

“…Other variables have been integrated within the COR theory to better explain the role of personal resources on individual behavior based on the current research context and background ( Testa et al, 2018 ; He et al, 2019 ; Marić et al, 2019 ; Sri Ramalu and Janadari, 2020 ). Current research demonstrating employees’ perceived support and self-efficacy as resources was incorporated into the COR theory to create a comprehensive theoretical model to understand individuals’ motivation to participate in extra-role activities such as OCB ( de Andrade et al, 2017 ; Montani and Dagenais-Desmarais, 2018 ; Gan and Yusof, 2020 ; Nguyen et al, 2022 ).…”

The Effect of Benevolent Leadership on Job Engagement through Psychological Safety and Workplace Friendship Prevalence in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry

“…Through its four components-spiritual depth, ethical sensitivity, positive engagement, and community responsiveness-benevolent leadership may support the long-term viability and sustainability of organizations [8]. Benevolent leadership is also connected to organizational citizenship behavior and is one of the main criteria for sustainable organizational growth, which contributes to an organization's long-term competitive advantage [14].…”